We have been working closely with the team at A&O on a fundamental look at the firm’s worldwide position and how to strengthen, sharpen and improve the communication of A&O’s brand. The stress goes into the word refresh rather than re-brand. This is a timely exercise given the massive geographical expansion of the firm in recent years and the need to get partners and the whole firm behind one clear view of what they are about and the direction they are taking. The year-long programme which continues into implementation involved a global perception study with clients, recruiters, journalists and the firm’s people in 17 markets through 22 of A&O’s offices. Outcomes include a strengthened brand positioning and the tools needed to implement this.


Allen & Overy is a great example of our way of working: the senior Fortune Street team joined forces with A&O’s business development team to carry out all stages of the project. The team was consistent throughout and not an ounce of research was lost along the way but was built into a convincing set of presentations to get partners in the firm involved, engaged and on-board with the idea.


Consensus is the only way in a global partnership and one of the successes of the project was the process designed by A&O with Fortune Street that aligned expectations with outcomes.


For more on this, get in touch with Tony Allen

Dance Umbrella brings brave new dance to London and has done for thirty years or so – it more or less gave us the term ‘contemporary dance’. This year marks a step change, Betsy Gregory’s tenure as artistic director is in full-swing and DU’s outlook brings a new energy to what the organisation is about and where it’s going.


Our role has been to help the DU team think through the presentational issues surrounding its shift in direction from major venue based work to more free to view and public experience work where the new excitement of new dance is happening. Work includes new identity and communications advice.


Above photo: Cabane by Hugo Glendinning
© Dance Umbrella

Above photo: Willi Dorner’s Bodies in Urban Space by Emma Swan
© Dance Umbrella

Above photo: Cie. Beau Geste
© Dance Umbrella

Freshly delivered monthly from Fortune Street – Research World

Here are just a few of the most recent issues. We continue to work with the ESOMAR editorial team to deliver Research World magazine with news and features from the world of research – lively layout, clear communication, new illustrators’ work, on time, on budget…

Esomar’s annual Congress takes place in Athens this year. We are delighted to have worked with ESOMAR again on preparing the illustration for this year’s congress.

On November 17th, we launched the National Gallery Company’s new product and retail strategy at an event at Adam Street.

This year, we have been working with them to build on our earlier branding work and to translate it into a meaningful and individual direction for their product buying, their retail environments and their selling style.


The new strategy has the Collection at its heart. It encourages visitors to engage with it more closely through delightful products that really tell the narratives of works of art and a more imaginative, emporium-like shopping style.

Since 2008 we have been working with Lapwing – formerly known as the DTU Improving Choices Programme in Suffolk – to help transform the organisation and review its name and brand strategy. Taking into account plans for expansion and exponential increases in the number of students, our work was timely in helping to define the organisation’s values, vision and brand strategy, as well as developing a distinctive name and character.


The new identity means Lapwing now has a strong and idiosyncratic presence in the often bureaucratic world of further education and learning disability, and gives them a distinctive voice to reach their different audiences.


Lapwing helps young people between 16-25 with complex barriers to learning (mental and physical) to realise and achieve their potential. Since it was founded it has steadily worked to develop partnerships with local businesses, colleges and training providers to create bespoke courses and programmes for Students, offering them the chance to progress into accredited courses associated with National Diplomas. It is the first of its kind in the UK to offer a bespoke programme to Students with learning difficulties.

CEO, Tony Allen writes for The Times.

The Times
June 4, 2009
Deal good value for Manchester United’s new sponsors

It may be paying about £20million a year, but Aon looks to be getting a very good deal. Manchester United have 333 million fans worldwide – and 190 million in Asia alone – while their matches are watched around the world by even more people, because not every viewer is a fan.

Paying £80million over four years for a leading association with the United brand and that kind of exposure is cheap by other measures and universally appealing because of the massive and growing popularity of football. Try to reach a similar-sized audience through advertising alone and it will cost far more than £20million. Consider that a leading supermarket might spend £10million on its advertising in an average year in the United Kingdom and that’s only for one country.

For Aon, an association with United takes them into a different league. You would expect a key sponsorship deal such as this to include valuable hospitality for Aon’s important clients. For the sponsor that wants to gain exposure in growth markets such as Asia the deal is extra valuable. United are also a brand that has been managed carefully for a very long time, but with a record of sporting achievement too. It’s a safe bet.

The other issue for any financial services brand is that there is a limit to how they advertise otherwise. There are only so many times you can talk about your interest rates. Sport changes that: look at what Abbey and Santander were able to do with Lewis Hamilton last year. A tie-up with a talent such as Hamilton or a club such as United gives a brand an extra distinctiveness over its rivals.

Clearly there are some risks: the main downside is that there is no absolute guarantee that the club will continue to perform as well as they have. What happens if Sir Alex Ferguson retires early, or if there is just one season where the team do not make it? If newspapers are writing that there is a crisis in the club, if the fans are anxious, you can become associated with that. But that can happen with any sports sponsorship.

There are also questions about the level of commercialisation in sport. United, with their high levels of debt, clearly need to get lucrative deals in place. However, while Barcelona may not have a shirt deal, this type of sponsorship is now well understood by fans, who know that these types of arrangements bring more money to the club and so help to maintain their long-term success.

Read the article on The Times website.

Research World is chosen for the Creative Review Annual 2009.



We’re celebrating. We are extremely pleased to announce that the work we’ve been doing with Research World has been given the accolade of appearing in this year’s Creative Review Annual.

A new identity reflects VakifBank’s current success and ambitious plans.

During the Ottoman period, a vakif was a charitable fund, organised by civic dignitaries to fund the city’s care facilities, hospitals, old folks’ homes, ambulances, and so on. With this heritage reflected in its name, Vakifbank had become one of the largest and most deeply rooted banks in Turkey. On the flip side, it used to be state-owned and continued to have a slow, bureaucratic reputation.

For some time, however, the bank had been in the private sector. A dynamic new management team had made considerable investments in IT and commercial restructuring, so the mismatch between the bank’s success and old-fashioned image that the corporate identity and branches presented was becoming a serious drawback. Like many traditional corporate identity clients, Vakifbank wanted to look as good as they actually are. The aim of our work since 2007 has been to do this: align the bank’s identity with its current business success, and its progressive plans for the future. The results are a re-designed corporate identity and a completely overhauled branch design that have set a contemporary standard for the Turkish market.

A radical repositioning and redesign for a long-standing industry publication.



For many years, ESOMAR have published a global magazine for the market research industry, Research World. Since October 2008, we have been working with them on a complete overhaul of the publication, from editorial focus and content to its design language and layout. The editorial is now focused on today’s key industry issues, including market intelligence and decision-making and the radical new design policy centres on work by young illustrators, and uses lightweight, recycled paper and fresh contemporary typography, all making for a much more relevant and engaging title.

We currently design the magazine monthly and commission all the visual content.